These photographs are of antique relief half-tone printing blocks originally made by a photomechanical process to reproduce photographs for publication between the 1880s and 1960s. Their invention was the first time in history images of reality could be produced on presses reaching the public, rather than an image interpreted and altered by hand.

The figures in the blocks history is unknown, but they were at one point important, or significant enough, to have their image produced in this way, for publishing in a newspaper. I invent the names of the characters, as I continue to imagine what they were once important for, and explore the social context behind them. Men are abundant; women are few and far between. The images pertain to births, graduations, professions, weddings and obituaries. Through these images a story begins to evolve of the major life events and rights of passage that people continually move through then and now.

An outdated process, these blocks have no use. I am photographing them to present this lost imagery in a new way while exploring photography’s capability as a medium. Each photograph is several iterations of light sensitive materials being exposed; the original photograph, the photomechanical produced block, my exposure to film, and finally the scanning process of the negative. Each image thus goes from a positive, to a negative, recorded once again as a negative, then inverted to a positive. It is in this long chain of events, which traverses over decades, that the ethereal glow of light and color occurs. It is in this passing of time and light that the photographs become monuments to the figures that are engraved upon these blocks.

Victoria Gonzalez
Pleasure Kitchen. 2014

Having an actively sexual thought process from a young age and feeling constrained by feelings of shame, my interest in a woman’s ability to enjoy her self through self-discovery is a theme prominent in this work. I remember my first orgasm when I was seven. I had been sitting in my room by myself. It wasn’t planned but a call to action that my body needed to fulfill and complete. Externally, we have these layers of skin working together ever so fragile to create a split moment of bliss. Then for those few seconds the body consumes itself with a euphoric pulsating sensation throughout the entire internal autonomy.

I wanted to challenge this idea of still conveying pleasure without having flesh and organs present. I played with candy like colors to allude to an indulgence of something worth to be desired. The photographs work through a progression of this erotic experience, first looking at the ingredients and then moving to the experience itself. My work raises those questions of how we come to understand a woman’s identity. It is important to recognize that as young women we are capable of achieving an understanding of who we are as sexual human beings.